aru mura ni
aru mura = some village
ni = place where the verb happens
In a village,

ojiisan to obaasan ga
ojiisan = grandfather, also an endearing term for any old man (familiar)
obaasan = same as ojiisan, only female. to = you guessed correctly. Here, it means "and"
ga = particle, denoting the focus of the sentence

sundeorimashita
sunde - "te" form of the verb "sumu", to live/reside
mashita - past form of the polite verb suffix -masu. Not exactly sure how "ori" fits in. This is also your verb, so it says what happened in the place marked by "ni" earlier.

were living

mukashi mukashi, aru mura ni ojiisan to obaasan ga sundeorimashita.

A long time ago, in a small village, there lived an old man and an old woman.

Last edited by mandolin on Wed 12.21.2005 8:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

FOr the record, this is the start of a metric buttload of old Japanese tales. It seems every village was required by custom to have an old man and old woman who, typically, had never had kids but wanted them, and....

BTW, "Mukashi mukashi" is the Japanese equivalent of "once upon a time."

I'm just proud that I was able to open such a can of worms. Even these stories are tough for beginners like me. I am rotating between kanji, finishing up katakana, and these stories. I am seeing how kanji can make Japanese much more readable.